No. 4 Lehigh lost for the first time this season Saturday, falling 48-38 to Cornell and ending a 23-game regular-season winning streak dating to a 38-23 loss at Yale on Oct. 19, 2024.

The loss does not count toward the Patriot League title. Lehigh is alone in first place at 4-0, a game ahead of Richmond and Colgate in the league standings, and still plays both. The league champion earns an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs. Lehigh plays next on Oct. 24 at Villanova.

The Mountain Hawks came in with the best run defense in the Football Championship Subdivision, allowing 80.3 rushing yards a game, and ranked second in scoring defense at 11.8 points a game. Cornell ran for 234 yards, nearly three times that average, and scored 48 points, about two-thirds of the 71 Lehigh had allowed in its first six games combined.

Cornell scored on its first two drives, gained 600 yards and never trailed.

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First-year head coach Rich Nagy said in a postgame video that poor tackling and miscommunication hurt the defense, and that the team’s preparation wasn’t good enough, starting with him.

“I love the way they came out,” Nagy said of his players. He said the team takes the season one week at a time and would be ready when it returns to practice Monday.

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Lehigh got within a touchdown three times in the second half but could not pull even. Senior running back Luke Yoder ran for 142 yards, and sophomore quarterback Derek Morgan threw three touchdown passes.

Cornell quarterback Garrett Bass-Sulpizio threw for 366 yards and ran for 103 before a homecoming crowd of 9,198. Cornell said the win was its first over a top-five opponent since 1939.

Lehigh’s last five regular-season games are all against league opponents, and all are on ESPN+ and Fox Sports Radio 94.7 FM and 1230 AM:

  • Oct. 24 at Villanova, 3:30 p.m.
  • Oct. 31 vs. Bucknell at Goodman Stadium, noon
  • Nov. 7 vs. Colgate at Goodman Stadium, noon
  • Nov. 14 at Richmond, 2 p.m.
  • Nov. 21 at Lafayette in Easton, the 162nd meeting of “The Rivalry,” time not yet announced

The 23-game streak was the second-longest in school history, according to Lehigh Athletics. The Mountain Hawks went 12-0 in the 2025 regular season under former coach Kevin Cahill and won their second straight Patriot League title.